Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Music Review:Nyssa "Champion of Love EP"

When I first heard the song "Cowboy" I fell in love with the music of Nyssa. I am going to say some things now that everyone might not like- and I'm going to break down that fourth wall to an extent- but I feel like they need to be said. Ok? Ok. Here we go. I was sent an email from Nyssa directly about the song/video and that made me want to listen to it. Another email shortly thereafter promoting this EP and I had no doubt in my mind I would be writing about it.

What was said exactly that made me want to listen to the music is something that I feel is personal to Nyssa- you can't fake that or replicate it in the sense that you can take what she wrote and write something similar in order to get me to review your music as well. My point in all of this is that Nyssa sent this single to me, then this EP and none of it was done through a publicist, a label, etc. I'm not saying all labels are bad (or publicists, but don't tell them I said that- love you Rachel!) what I'm saying is that it is possible for you to do this yourself.

"Champion of Love" has feelings of dark pop but the vocals are right on. Nyssa has stated this is like Dolly Parton in some ways and I've honestly never listened to Dolly Parton so I feel like that'd be one of those "Ah! Country! I'm not listening to this!" red flags, but this is something beyond country, beyond genre really. It's driving and electric. You can dance to it but you don't have to. It's a throwback in ways to when there was mall pop with Debbie Gibson and Tiffany (whom I both *still* love) but also Cyndi Lauper and more recent artists come out as well.

The titular track has a more modern sense to it and just pondering the idea that "There ain't no place for a cowboy in Hollywood" is going to be someone's college thesis. Really though, whatever happened to guys like John Wayne, even Clint Eastwood? There are no modern versions of them. Hollywood doesn't care anymore and it's sad. I can also hear some Queen in here, but it's like that song Queen did with David Bowie too and I can't decide if it's more Queen or Bowie.

One of the things I like to think about music is not just getting caught up in the moment and in the sense of "These songs are great" but the future of "And where do you go from here". As this is an EP, I would love to see someone out there put out a full length for Nyssa, eventually, on cassette. It would have that same type of artwork as a Debbie Gibson cassette mixed with Dolly Parton (Go ahead, google their cassettes and see the similarities) But, of course, it would be totally Nyssa.